Chapters In The Formative History Of Judaism »

This collection of ten essays and five book reviews draws on three years of work, from late 2005 through mid-2008. Included are Halakhic essays, essays on Classical Judaism, and two literary studies. Five book reviews conclude the collection, one of them a review essay, covering Edward Kaplan's two volumes on Abraham J. Heschel.

Halakhic Theology

1 The Halakhic Category Formations of Normative Judaism: Why This, Not That, in the Mishnah-Tosefta-Yerushalmi-Bavli? 1

2 Religious Jurisprudence in Judaism; The Halakhic Theology Seen Whole: Actualizing the Torah's Story 29

Judaic Religion

3 The Religious Meaning of the Torah 49

4 Is Judaism a Traditional Religion? 77

5 The Golden Rule in Classical Judaism 109

6 Divine Love in Classical Judaism 129

Talmudic History

7 Why No Science in Judaism? 151

8 Is Scripture the Origin of the Halakhah? 185

Rabbinic Literature

9 Testing the Results of Richard Kalmin. A Null Hypothesis Examined in the Setting of Mishnah and Bavli Tractate Moed Qatan 207

10 Is the Yerushalmi Constructed in Accord with Analytical Templates? 223

Book Reviews

11 Gabriele Boccaccini. Roots of Rabbinic Judaism. An Intellectual History, from Ezekiel to Daniel 243

12 Bruce Chilton, Abraham's Curse. Child Sacrifice in the Legacies of the West 255

13 Edward K. Kaplan and Samuel H. Dresner. Abraham Joshua Heschel. Prophetic Witness. Edward Kaplan, Spiritual Radical. Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, 1940-1972 259

14 Jonathan Sacks, The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society 267

15 Jonathan Cohen, Philosophers and Scholars. Wolfson, Guttmann and Strauss on the History of Jewish Philosophy 271